Editing Microsoft PowerPoint (section)

==History==
===Creation at Forethought (1984–1987)===
PowerPoint was created by [[Robert Gaskins]] and [[Dennis Austin]] at a software [[Startup company|startup]] in [[Silicon Valley]] named [[Forethought, Inc.]]<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gomes |first=Lee |date=June 20, 2007 |title=PowerPoint Turns 20, As Its Creators Ponder A Dark Side to Success |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB118228116940840904 |url-access=subscription <!-- but archive is ungated --> |department=Portals |newspaper=Wall Street Journal |issn=0099-9660 |edition=US |volume=CCXLIX |issue=143 |page=B1 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240528060821/https://www.webcitation.org/6sthPU4jp?url=https://filetea.me/n3wpdnAIxrfQpWtQBrQFab9sg |url-status=live | archive-date=May 28, 2024 |access-date=August 22, 2017 |quote=PowerPoint's two creators ... Robert Gaskins was the visionary entrepreneur ... with major programming done by Dennis Austin, an old chum ... .}}</ref> Forethought had been founded in 1983 to create an integrated environment and applications for future personal computers that would provide a graphical user interface, but it had run into difficulties requiring a "restart" and new plan.<ref name="Brock-2017-re-Forethought">{{Cite journal |last=Brock |first=David C. |date=October 31, 2017 |title=The Improbable Origins of PowerPoint |url= https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-improbable-origins-of-powerpoint |department=History |journal=[[IEEE Spectrum]] |publication-date=November 2, 2017 |volume=54 |issue=11 |pages=42–49 |issn=0018-9235 |doi=10.1109/MSPEC.2017.8093800 |s2cid=27013411 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171102205858/https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/cyberspace/the-improbable-origins-of-powerpoint |url-status=live |archive-date=November 2, 2017 |access-date=November 2, 2017 |quote=PowerPoint was not at all in their original plan. ... [the founders] Pohlman and Campbell's idea was to bring a graphical-software environment like the Xerox Alto's to the hugely popular but graphically challenged [IBM] PC. ... Rather than liquidate the firm, management and investors decided to "restart" Forethought ... .|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

On July 5, 1984, Forethought hired Robert Gaskins as its vice president of product development<ref name="Sweating-Bullets-2012-history">{{Cite book |last=Gaskins |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Gaskins |title=Sweating Bullets: Notes about Inventing PowerPoint |year=2012 |publisher=Vinland Books |isbn=978-0-9851424-0-7 <!-- hardcover ed --> |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RC_5OCQQJ7YC |access-date=August 12, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170624031005/http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/sweating-bullets/gaskins-sweating-bullets-webpdf-isbn-9780985142414.pdf <!-- webpdf ed --> |url-status=live |archive-date=June 24, 2017}}</ref>{{Rp|page=51}} to create a new application that would be especially suited to the new [[Graphical user interface|graphical]] personal computers, such as the [[Macintosh 128K|Apple Macintosh]] and later [[Microsoft Windows]].<ref name="Brock-2017-re-PowerPoint">{{Cite journal |last=Brock |first=David C. |date=October 31, 2017 |title=The Improbable Origins of PowerPoint |url= https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-improbable-origins-of-powerpoint |department=History |journal=[[IEEE Spectrum]] |publication-date=November 2, 2017 |volume=54 |issue=11 |pages=42–49 |issn=0018-9235 |doi=10.1109/MSPEC.2017.8093800 |s2cid=27013411 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171102205858/https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/cyberspace/the-improbable-origins-of-powerpoint |url-status=live |archive-date=November 2, 2017 |access-date=November 2, 2017 |quote= ... Forethought began to develop a software product of its own. This new effort was the brainchild of Robert Gaskins, an accomplished computer scientist who'd been hired to lead Forethought's product development.|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Gaskins produced his initial description of PowerPoint about a month later (August 14, 1984) in the form of a 2-page document titled "Presentation Graphics for Overhead Projection."<ref name="presenter-proposal">{{Cite web |url=http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/gaskins-powerpoint-original-proposal-1984-aug-14.pdf |title=Presentation Graphics for Overhead Projection |last=Gaskins |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Gaskins |date=August 14, 1984 |website=PowerPoint History Documents |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151106153939/http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/gaskins-powerpoint-original-proposal-1984-aug-14.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=November 6, 2015 |access-date=August 21, 2017}}</ref> By October 1984, Gaskins had selected Dennis Austin to be the developer for PowerPoint.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2012/06/102745695-01-acc.pdf |title=Beginnings of PowerPoint: A Personal Technical Story |last=Austin |first=Dennis |date=2009 |website=Computer History Museum, Archive |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141112105359/http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2012/06/102745695-01-acc.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 12, 2014 |access-date=August 21, 2017 |quote=In October ...I joined Forethought ... . }}</ref> Gaskins and Austin worked together on the definition and design of the new product for nearly a year, and produced the first specification document dated August 21, 1985.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/austin-gaskins-powerpoint-design-1985-aug-21.pdf |title=Presenter [PowerPoint] Design |last1=Austin |first1=Dennis |last2=Gaskins |first2=Robert |author-link2=Robert Gaskins |date=August 21, 1985 |website=PowerPoint History Documents |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107153656/http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/austin-gaskins-powerpoint-design-1985-aug-21.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=January 7, 2016 |access-date=April 22, 2015}}</ref> This first design document showed a product as it would look in Microsoft [[Windows 1.0]],<ref>{{Cite news |last=Foster |first=Edward |date=July 1, 1985 |title=Microsoft Ships Windows: Once Written Off Because of Delays, Windows Now Seen as a Contender Against Topview |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EC8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA17 |department=News, Software |newspaper=InfoWorld |issn=0199-6649 |volume=7 |issue=26 |page=17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170824182047/https://books.google.com/books?id=EC8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA17#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live |archive-date=August 24, 2017 |access-date=August 24, 2017 |quote='We're quite happy to have people know our plan is to leverage our Mac experience with Microsoft Windows,' says Robert Gaskins, vice president of development.}}</ref> which at that time had not been released.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.technologizer.com/2010/11/20/the-secret-origin-of-windows |title=The Secret Origin of Windows |last=Trower |first=Tandy |author-link=Tandy Trower |date=November 20, 2010 |website=Technologizer |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110123114439/http://technologizer.com/2010/11/20/the-secret-origin-of-windows-2/comment-page-1/ |url-status=live |archive-date=January 23, 2011 |access-date=August 23, 2017 |quote=Windows 1.0 shipped on November 20th, 1985 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>

Development from that spec was begun by Austin in November 1985, for Macintosh first.<ref name="Sweating-Bullets-2012-history" />{{Rp|page=104}} About six months later, on May 1, 1986, Gaskins and Austin chose a second developer to join the project, Thomas Rudkin.<ref name="Sweating-Bullets-2012-history" />{{Rp|page=149}} Gaskins prepared two final product specification marketing documents in June 1986; these described a product for both Macintosh and Windows.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/gaskins-powerpoint-marketing-analysis-1986-jun-27.pdf |title=Presenter [PowerPoint] Product Marketing Analysis |last=Gaskins |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Gaskins |date=June 27, 1986 |website=PowerPoint History Documents |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107154620/http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/gaskins-powerpoint-marketing-analysis-1986-jun-27.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=January 7, 2016 |access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/gaskins-powerpoint-summary-and-review-1986-jul-15.pdf |title=Presenter [PowerPoint] New Product Summary and Review |last=Gaskins |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Gaskins |date=July 15, 1986 |website=PowerPoint History Documents |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107161645/http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/gaskins-powerpoint-summary-and-review-1986-jul-15.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=January 7, 2016 |access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> At about the same time, Austin, Rudkin, and Gaskins produced a second and final major design specification document, this time showing a Macintosh look.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/austin-rudkin-gaskins-powerpoint-spec-1986-may-22.pdf |title=Presenter [PowerPoint] Specification |last1=Austin |first1=Dennis |last2=Rudkin |first2=Thomas |last3=Gaskins |first3=Robert |author-link3=Robert Gaskins |date=May 22, 1986 |website=PowerPoint History Documents |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107154652/http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/austin-rudkin-gaskins-powerpoint-spec-1986-may-22.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=January 7, 2016 |access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref>

Throughout this development period, the product was called "Presenter". Then, just before release, there was a last-minute check with Forethought's lawyers to register the name as a trademark, and "Presenter" was unexpectedly rejected because it had already been used by someone else. Gaskins says that he thought of "PowerPoint", based on the product's goal of "empowering" individual presenters, and sent that name to the lawyers for clearance, while all the documentation was hastily revised.<ref name="Indezine-2012">{{cite interview |last=Gaskins |first=Robert |subject-link=Robert Gaskins |interviewer=Geetesh Bajaj |title=PowerPoint at 25: Conversation with Robert Gaskins |url=http://blog.indezine.com/2012/08/powerpoint-at-25-conversation-with.html#Named |date=August 13, 2012 |access-date=August 21, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150404114624/http://blog.indezine.com/2012/08/powerpoint-at-25-conversation-with.html |url-status=live |archive-date=April 4, 2015}}</ref>

Funding to complete development of PowerPoint was assured in mid-January 1987, when a new Apple Computer venture capital fund, called Apple's Strategic Investment Group,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ranney |first=Elizabeth |date=May 5, 1986 |title=Apple Proceeding With Strategic Investment Plans |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qi8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA3 |department="Just Heard" column |newspaper=InfoWorld |issn=0199-6649 |volume=8 |issue=18 |page=3 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240527085758/https://www.webcitation.org/6Ym7tmtXq?url=https://filetea.me/t1swkwPNQcNT1OVxxWVGlbCeA |url-status=live |archive-date=May 27, 2024 |access-date=August 24, 2017 |quote=[Strategic Investment Group head Dan] Eilers stressed ... 'we are going to make minority investments in companies that add value to Apple computers and thereby increase the sales of Apple computers over time.' }}</ref> selected PowerPoint to be its first investment.<ref name="Sweating-Bullets-2012-history" />{{Rp|pages=169–171}} A month later, on February 22, 1987, Forethought announced PowerPoint at the Personal Computer Forum in [[Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix]]; [[John Sculley]], the CEO of Apple, appeared at the announcement and said "We see desktop presentation as potentially a bigger market for Apple than desktop publishing."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Mace |first=Scott |date=March 2, 1987 |title=Presentation Package Lets Users Control Look |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1TAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA5 |newspaper=InfoWorld |issn=0199-6649 |volume=9 |issue=9 |page=5 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240527085435/https://www.webcitation.org/6Ym2krMYP?url=https://filetea.me/t1sKNh0ZTl2S8xyckHWoi2ywg |url-status=live |archive-date=May 27, 2024 |access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref>

PowerPoint 1.0 for Macintosh shipped from manufacturing on April 20, 1987, and the first production run of 10,000 units was sold out.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/gaskins-history-of-forethought-1987-may-25.pdf |title=Forethought Restart Completed (A Brief History) |page=9 |last=Gaskins |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Gaskins |date=May 25, 1987 |website=PowerPoint History Documents |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107154610/http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/gaskins-history-of-forethought-1987-may-25.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=January 7, 2016 |access-date=August 24, 2017 |quote=We completed PowerPoint so as to ship it on schedule on April 20. By early May, we had shipped about $1,000,000 worth of PowerPoint and exhausted the first printing of 10,000 copies.}}</ref>

===Acquisition by Microsoft (1987–1992)===
By early 1987, Microsoft was starting to plan a new application to create presentations, an activity led by [[Jeff Raikes]], who was head of marketing for the Applications Division.<ref name="raikes-history-pt2-2010-hist">{{Cite web |last=Microsoft Corporation |title=The History of Microsoft—The Jeff Raikes Story, Part Two |website=Channel9 videos, Microsoft Developer Network |date=April 8, 2010 |url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/shows/history/history-of-microsoft-jeff-raikes-story-part-two |at=05:42 to 07:18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170824185801/https://channel9.msdn.com/Series/History/The-History-of-Microsoft-The-Jeff-Raikes-Story-Part-Two |url-status=live |archive-date=August 24, 2017 |access-date=August 24, 2017 |quote=Jeff Raikes talks ... about having an idea in 1987 for a presentation product before discovering Forethought, which had a product called PowerPoint.}} A [https://www.webcitation.org/6Yp0CXRBx?url=https://filetea.me/t1s6cpDUdxcROysEP9aBVOGHQ transcript] of the relevant section is also available. <!--backup: Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/TCpcI_WCiI8 Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [http://web.archive.org/web/20111014140851/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCpcI_WCiI8 Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{webarchive|format=addlarchives|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCpcI_WCiI8 |date=February 25, 2011 |title=The History of Microsoft—The Jeff Raikes Story (Part 2 of 2)}}{{cbignore}} --></ref> Microsoft assigned an internal group to write a specification and plan for a new presentation product.<ref>{{Cite news |last=May |first=Trish |date=January 17, 2010 |title=The Road to the Cure |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/jobs/17boss.html |newspaper=New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |page=BU7 |edition=New York |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220620033145/https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/jobs/17boss.html?_r=0 |url-status=live |archive-date=June 20, 2022 |access-date=August 24, 2017 |quote=I wrote and presented a proposal to Bill Gates for a new piece of software for the personal computer, specifically to help people create presentations ... .}}</ref> They contemplated an acquisition to speed up development, and in early 1987 Microsoft sent a letter of intent to acquire [[Dave Winer]]'s product called [[MORE (application)|MORE]], an outlining program that could print its outlines as bullet charts.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Swaine |first=Michael |title=Calling Apple's Bluff |website=Dr. Dobb's Journal |date=September 1, 1991 |url=http://www.drdobbs.com/calling-apples-bluff/184408623 |access-date=August 24, 2017 |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6Zba5qXQj?url=https://filetea.me/t1sWOUvVIUxQ1q3s2Yn7UdfxA |url-status=live |archive-date=June 27, 2015 |quote=I [Dave Winer] had a meeting with Bill Gates in, I guess it was February of '87 ... We worked out a letter of intent.}}</ref> During this preparatory activity Raikes discovered that a program specifically to make overhead presentations was already being developed by Forethought, Inc., and that it was nearly completed.<ref name="raikes-history-pt2-2010-hist" /> Raikes and others visited Forethought on February 6, 1987, for a confidential demonstration.<ref name="Sweating-Bullets-2012-history" />{{Rp|page=173}}

Raikes later recounted his reaction to seeing PowerPoint and his report about it to [[Bill Gates]], who was initially skeptical:<ref name="raikes-history-pt2-2010-hist" />

{{Blockquote|I thought, "software to do overheads—that's a great idea." I came back to see Bill. I said, "Bill, I think we really ought to do this;" and Bill said, "No, no, no, no, no, that's just a feature of Microsoft Word, just put it into Word." ... And I kept saying, "Bill, no, it's not just a feature of Microsoft Word, it's a whole genre of how people do these presentations." And, to his credit, he listened to me and ultimately allowed me to go forward and ... buy this company in Silicon Valley called Forethought, for the product known as PowerPoint.}}

When PowerPoint was released by Forethought, its initial press was favorable; the ''Wall Street Journal'' reported on early reactions: {{" '}}I see about one product a year I get this excited about,' says Amy Hora, a consultant in Bala Cynwyd, Pa. 'People will [[killer app|buy a Macintosh just to get access to this product]].{{' "}}<ref>{{Cite news |last=Carroll |first=Paul B. |date=March 6, 1987 |title=New Software Simplifies Show and Tell |url=https://secure.pqarchiver.com/wsj/doc/135282891.html |url-access=subscription <!-- but archive is ungated --> |department=Technology |newspaper=Wall Street Journal |issn=0099-9660 |page=33 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240528060702/https://www.webcitation.org/6stGJoV2i?url=https://filetea.me/n3wkyU6jExiTquT65RsohieMQ |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 28, 2024 |access-date=August 21, 2017 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>

On April 28, 1987, a week after shipment, a group of Microsoft's senior executives spent another day at Forethought to hear about initial PowerPoint sales on Macintosh and plans for Windows.<ref name="Sweating-Bullets-2012-history" />{{Rp|page=191}} The following day, Microsoft sent a letter to Dave Winer withdrawing its earlier letter of intent to acquire his company,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Winer |first=Dave |author-link=Dave Winer |title=Microsoft rejection letter, 1987 |website=Scripting News |date=April 10, 2010 |url=http://scripting.com/stories/2010/04/10/microsoftRejectionLetter19.html |access-date=August 21, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150907205437/http://scripting.com/stories/2010/04/10/microsoftRejectionLetter19.html |url-status=live |archive-date=September 7, 2015}}</ref> and in mid-May 1987 Microsoft sent a letter of intent to acquire Forethought.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/microsoft-letter-of-intent-for-forethought-1987-may-13.pdf |title=[Microsoft] Letter of Intent [to acquire Forethought] |last=Shirley |first=Jon |author-link=Jon Shirley |date=May 13, 1987 |website=PowerPoint History Documents |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140517183105/http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/microsoft-letter-of-intent-for-forethought-1987-may-13.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=May 17, 2014 |access-date=August 21, 2017}}</ref> As requested in that letter of intent, Robert Gaskins from Forethought went to Redmond for a one-on-one meeting with Bill Gates in early June 1987,<ref name="Sweating-Bullets-2012-history" />{{Rp|page=197}} and by the end of July an agreement was concluded for an acquisition. The ''New York Times'' reported:<ref>{{Cite news |last=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=July 31, 1987 |title=Microsoft Buys Software Unit |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/31/business/company-news-microsoft-buys-software-unit.html <!-- full URL required --> |department=Company News |newspaper=New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |volume=CXXXV |issue=46,717 |publication-date=July 31, 1987 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150524214338/http://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/31/business/company-news-microsoft-buys-software-unit.html |url-status=live |archive-date=May 24, 2015 |access-date=August 21, 2017}}</ref>

{{Blockquote| ... July 30, 1987— The Microsoft Corporation announced its first significant software acquisition today, paying $14&nbsp;million [${{Formatprice|{{Inflation|US|14000000|1987|r=1}}}} in present-day terms{{Inflation-fn|US}}] for Forethought Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif. Forethought makes a program called PowerPoint that allows users of Apple Macintosh computers to make overhead transparencies or flip charts. ... [T]he acquisition of Forethought is the first significant one for Microsoft, which is based in Redmond, Wash. Forethought would remain in Sunnyvale, giving Microsoft a Silicon Valley presence. The unit will be headed by Robert Gaskins, Forethought's vice president of product development.}}

Microsoft's president [[Jon Shirley]] offered his company's motivation for the acquisition: {{" '}}We made this deal primarily because of our belief in desktop presentations as a product category. ... Forethought was first to market with a product in this category.{{' "}}<ref name="Shirley-comments">{{Cite news |last1=Parker |first1=Rachel |date=August 3, 1987 |title=Microsoft Acquires Forethought, Publisher of PowerPoint Package |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1zsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA8 |department=News |newspaper=InfoWorld |issn=0199-6649 |volume=9 |issue=31 |page=8 |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6ZVlHDCYN?url=https://filetea.me/t1sZ0YKQbIxQxKUb7kT6fp3Xw |url-status=live |archive-date=June 23, 2015 |access-date=August 22, 2017 |quote=The Forethought group will become Microsoft's Graphics Business Unit, forming a permanent Microsoft development and marketing facility in Sunnyvale, California. With a site in California, Microsoft hopes to recruit programmers who might not want to relocate to Washington, [Microsoft president Jon] Shirley said.}}</ref> Microsoft had 50% market share in Macintosh applications, and led in three categories; Raikes said that after the acquisition it would lead in five categories. (Forethought distributed the database [[Filemaker]], which Microsoft wanted to continue marketing.) The company intended for Forethought to be its Silicon Valley base to develop and market future graphics software,<ref name="keefe19870803">{{Cite magazine |last=Keefe |first=Patricia |date=1987-08-03 |title=Microsoft buys Forethought |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oNqVCaMq9mUC&lpg=PP101&pg=PP101#v=onepage&q&f=false |access-date=2024-11-01 |magazine=Computerworld |page=81}}</ref> so set up within its Applications Division, an independent "Graphics Business Unit" for PowerPoint, the first Microsoft application group distant from the main Redmond location. The company hoped to hire employees uninterested in living in Washington state.<ref name="Shirley-comments" /> All the PowerPoint people from Forethought joined Microsoft, and the new location was headed by Robert Gaskins, with Dennis Austin and Thomas Rudkin leading development. PowerPoint 1.0 for Macintosh was modified to indicate the new Microsoft ownership and continued to be sold. A year after the acquisition, Gaskins reported that all seven Forethought PowerPoint employees had stayed with Microsoft, and the Graphics Business Unit had hired 12 employees, many of whom did not want to move to Redmond. The GBU had moved to a new location on [[Sand Hill Road]] in [[Menlo Park, California]]; it was much larger than needed for 19 people, but Gaskins wrote that he and Microsoft wanted future capacity as the company grew in Silicon Valley.<ref name="GBU-first-year-1988">{{Cite web |url=http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/gaskins-gbu-first-year-report-to-microsoft-1988-aug-08.pdf |title=Results of Microsoft's Graphics Business Unit after Our First Year |last=Gaskins |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Gaskins |date=August 8, 1988 |website=PowerPoint History Documents |type=Microsoft Memo |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107153728/http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/gaskins-gbu-first-year-report-to-microsoft-1988-aug-08.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=January 7, 2016 |access-date=August 23, 2017}}</ref>

A new PowerPoint 2.0 for Macintosh, adding color 35&nbsp;mm slides, shipped in May 1988,<ref name="GBU-first-year-1988" /> and again received good reviews.<ref name="pournelle198901">{{Cite magazine |last=Pournelle |first=Jerry |author-link=Jerry Pournelle |date=January 1989 |title=To the Stars |url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1989-01/1989_01_BYTE_14-01_PC_Communications_and_Annual_Awards_and_Digitizing_Tablets#page/n151/mode/2up <!-- adjusted URL and page number to exact ref, not article beginning --> |magazine=BYTE |issn=0360-5280 |volume=14 |issue=1 |page=120 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20170930222615/https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1989-01/1989_01_BYTE_14-01_PC_Communications_and_Annual_Awards_and_Digitizing_Tablets%23page/n151/mode/2up |url-status=live |archive-date=September 30, 2017 |access-date=September 30, 2017 |quote=I'll just say that if you're in the business of putting on briefings and otherwise making presentations, you might want to seriously contemplate getting a Mac II just so you can use this program; it's that good. Highly recommended. |df=mdy-all }}</ref> The same PowerPoint 2.0 product re-developed for Windows was shipped two years later, in mid-1990, at the same time as [[Windows 3.0]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XlEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA15 |last=Borzo |first=Jeanette |title=PowerPoint users pleased by changes |newspaper=InfoWorld |publisher=IDG |issn=0199-6649 |volume=14 |issue=20 |date=May 18, 1992 |page=15 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240527090441/https://www.webcitation.org/6YnF6x0m9?url=https://filetea.me/t1s93DMYfS1T7Gs3VyxWzxRZw |url-status=live |archive-date=May 27, 2024 |access-date=August 4, 2017}}</ref> Much of the color technology was the result of a joint development partnership with [[Genigraphics]], the dominant presentation services company.<ref name="GBU-first-year-genigraphics">{{cite web |url=http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/gaskins-gbu-first-year-report-to-microsoft-1988-aug-08.pdf |title=Results of Microsoft's Graphics Business Unit after Our First Year |last=Gaskins |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Gaskins |date=August 8, 1988 |website=PowerPoint History Documents |type=Microsoft Memo |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107153728/http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/gaskins-gbu-first-year-report-to-microsoft-1988-aug-08.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=January 7, 2016 |access-date=August 23, 2017 |quote=We have learned a tremendous number of technical insights through working with the Genigraphics engineering group ... .}}</ref>

PowerPoint 3.0, which was shipped in 1992 for both Windows and Mac, added live video for projectors and monitors, with the result that PowerPoint was thereafter used for delivering presentations as well as for preparing them. This was at first an alternative to overhead transparencies and 35&nbsp;mm slides, but over time would come to replace them.<ref name="CACM-2007-Gaskins-history">{{Cite journal |last=Gaskins |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Gaskins |date=December 2007 |title=PowerPoint at 20: Back to Basics |url=https://www.academia.edu/1866305 |department=Viewpoint |journal=[[Communications of the ACM]] |publication-date=December 2007 |volume=50 |issue=12 |pages=15–17 |issn=0001-0782 |doi=10.1145/1323688.1323710 |s2cid=48306 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107161639/http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/gaskins-powerpoint-at-20-cacm-vol50-no12-dec-2007-p15-p17.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=January 7, 2016 |access-date=August 24, 2017 }} The first three versions are described in the sidebar, "Presentation Formats and PowerPoint," p. 17.</ref>

===Part of Microsoft Office (since 1993)===
{{See also|History of Microsoft Office}}
PowerPoint had been included in [[Microsoft Office]] from the beginning. PowerPoint 2.0 for Macintosh was part of the first Office bundle for Macintosh which was offered in mid-1989.<ref name="mac-office-1989">{{Cite news |last=Flynn |first=Laurie |date=June 19, 1989 |title=The Microsoft Office Bundles 4 Programs |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lzAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA17 |newspaper=InfoWorld |issn=0199-6649 |volume=11 |issue=25 |page=37 <!-- Note pg in URL is correctly off by 20, PA37 doesn't work --> |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240527085716/https://www.webcitation.org/6Ym7SWz2j?url=https://filetea.me/t1s8ljg1ymETEWjSQxw5r2mMQ |url-status=live |archive-date=May 27, 2024 |access-date=August 24, 2017 |quote=A special promotion announced last week by Microsoft Corp. enables Macintosh customers to buy four of the company's business applications at a 35 percent discount. The special edition, called The Microsoft Office, includes Word 4.0, Excel 2.2, PowerPoint 2.01, and Mail 1.37. The package sells for $849; if purchased separately, the programs would cost $1,310, the company said. The promotion is available until the end of the year.}}</ref> When PowerPoint 2.0 for Windows appeared, a year later, it was part of a similar Office bundle for Windows, which was offered in late 1990.<ref name="win-office-1990">{{Cite news |last=Johnston |first=Stuart J. |date=October 1, 1990 |title=Office for Windows Bundles Popular Microsoft Applications |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VTwEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT17 |newspaper=InfoWorld |issn=0199-6649 |volume=12 |issue=40 |page=16 <!-- Note pg in URL is correctly off by 1 and PT, PA17 doesn't work --> |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240527085840/https://www.webcitation.org/6Ym8WVBD3?url=https://filetea.me/t1s24zfAGB3Qm6bLZB2JeRKdg |url-status=live |archive-date=May 27, 2024 |access-date=August 24, 2017 |quote=Microsoft last week announced the release of The Microsoft Office for Windows, which bundles three of the company's popular Windows applications—Word, Excel, and PowerPoint—for significantly less than they would cost separately. The product brings to the Windows environment basically the equivalent of The Microsoft Office for Macintosh, which was announced a year ago.}}</ref> Both of these were bundling promotions, in which the independent applications were packaged together and offered for a lower total price.<ref name="mac-office-1989" /><ref name="win-office-1990"/>

PowerPoint 3.0 (1992) was again separately specified and developed,<ref name="austin-timeline-2001-lead" /> and was advertised and sold separately from Office.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Microsoft Corporation|date=March 1993 |title=New PowerPoint 3.0. Because powerful tools make powerful presentations |url=https://archive.org/stream/MacWorld_9303_March_1993#page/n1/mode/2up |type=advertisement |newspaper=MacWorld |issn=0741-8647 |volume=10 |issue=3 |pages=BA1–BA2 (inside front cover spread) |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240528061023/https://www.webcitation.org/6sxzJkfQc?url=https://filetea.me/n3wgT51xEYjRt6alx4riYE5fg |url-status=live |archive-date=May 28, 2024 |access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> It was, as before, included in [[Microsoft Office 3.0]], both for Windows and the corresponding version for Macintosh.<ref>{{Cite news |last=<!-- no byline --> |date=August 31, 1992 |title=Microsoft Office now has Mail, PowerPoint |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EVEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA15 |department=Pipeline |newspaper=InfoWorld |issn=0199-6649 |volume=14 |issue=35 |page=15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221124333/https://books.google.com/books/content?id=EVEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA15&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&sig=ACfU3U0RcN93Pp_McbAK0yCLoIO3niurMw |url-status=live |archive-date=December 21, 2016 |access-date=August 23, 2017}}</ref>

A plan to integrate the applications themselves more tightly had been indicated as early as February 1991, toward the end of PowerPoint 3.0 development, in an internal memo by Bill Gates:<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://antitrust.slated.org/www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/0000/PX00577.pdf |title=Market Share of Applications in the United States |last=Gates |first=Bill |author-link=Bill Gates |date=February 19, 1991 |type=Microsoft Memo |website=Slated Antitrust (scanned court evidence files) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170828062531/http://antitrust.slated.org/www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/0000/PX00577.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=August 28, 2017 |access-date=August 22, 2017}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|Another important question is what portion of our applications sales over time will be a set of applications versus a single product. ... Please assume that we stay ahead in integrating our family together in evaluating our future strategies—the product teams WILL deliver on this. ... I believe that we should position the "OFFICE" as our most important application.}}

The move from bundling separate products to integrated development began with PowerPoint 4.0, developed in 1993–1994 under new management from Redmond.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=1123010&privcapId=1217370 |title=Executive Profile: Vijay R. Vashee |last=S&P Global Market Intelligence |date=2017 |website=Bloomberg.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170822230747/https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=1123010&privcapId=1217370 |url-status=live |archive-date=August 22, 2017 |access-date=August 22, 2017 |quote=From 1982 ... Mr. Vashee served in various senior marketing, product management and executive positions at Microsoft. ... and as the General Manager for PowerPoint from 1992 to 1997 ... played a key role in the integration of PowerPoint into the Microsoft Office suite.}}</ref> The PowerPoint group in Silicon Valley was reorganized from the independent "Graphics Business Unit" (GBU) to become the "Graphics Product Unit" (GPU) for Office, and PowerPoint 4.0 changed to adopt a converged user interface and other components shared with the other apps in Office.<ref name="austin-timeline-2001-lead" />

When it was released, the computer press reported on the change approvingly: "PowerPoint 4.0 has been re-engineered from the ground up to resemble and work with the latest applications in Office: Word 6.0, Excel 5.0, and Access 2.0. The integration is so good, you'll have to look twice to make sure you're running PowerPoint and not Word or Excel."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Fridlund |first=Alan |date=June 6, 1994 |title=PowerPoint 4.0 makes it into the big time |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hzgEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA95 |department=Reviews |newspaper=InfoWorld |issn=0199-6649 |volume=16 |issue=23 |pages=95–98 |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6YmAg2aM9?url=https://filetea.me/t1sdT1vnOdpQOqyCVTgHxyljA |url-status=live |archive-date=May 24, 2015 |access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> Office integration was further underscored in the following version, PowerPoint 95, which was given the version number PowerPoint 7.0 (skipping 5.0 and 6.0) so that all the components of Office would share the same major version number.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.lassesen.com/msdn/using%20microsoft%20ole%20automation%20servers%20to%20develop%20solutions.pdf |title=Using Microsoft OLE Automation Servers to Develop Solutions |last=Lassesen |first=Ken |date=October 17, 1995 |website=Archive of Articles from MSDN Technology Group |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170807073017/http://www.lassesen.com/msdn/using%20microsoft%20ole%20automation%20servers%20to%20develop%20solutions.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=August 7, 2017 |access-date=August 24, 2017 |quote=Note that version 7.0 of a product is the same as a '95' designation, for example, Microsoft Excel 95 is the same as Microsoft Excel version 7.0.}}</ref>

Although PowerPoint by this point had become part of the integrated Microsoft Office product, its development remained in Silicon Valley. Succeeding versions of PowerPoint introduced important changes, particularly version 12.0 (2007) which had a very different shared Office "[[Ribbon (computing)|ribbon]]" user interface, and a new shared [[Office Open XML|Office XML-based file format]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa338198(v=office.12).aspx |last=Microsoft |title=Developer Overview of the User Interface for the 2007 Microsoft Office System |date=May 2006 |website=Microsoft Developer Network |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170707194202/https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa338198(v=office.12).aspx |url-status=live |archive-date=July 7, 2017 |access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> This marked the 20th anniversary of PowerPoint, and Microsoft held an event to commemorate that anniversary at its Silicon Valley Campus for the PowerPoint team there. Special guests were Robert Gaskins, Dennis Austin, and Thomas Rudkin, and the featured speaker was Jeff Raikes, all from PowerPoint 1.0 days, 20 years before.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.robertgaskins.com/ |title=Microsoft's 20-year PPT party |last=Gaskins |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Gaskins |date=August 17, 2007 |website=Robert Gaskins Home Page |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170824202650/http://www.robertgaskins.com/ |url-status=live |archive-date=August 24, 2017 |access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref>

Since then major development of PowerPoint as part of Office has continued. New development techniques (shared across Office) for PowerPoint 2016 have made it possible to ship versions of PowerPoint 2016 for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and web access nearly simultaneously,{{citation needed|date=July 2018}} and to release new features on an almost monthly schedule.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://support.office.com/en-us/article/What-s-new-in-PowerPoint-2016-for-Windows-e8ef980c-5b12-4fff-ae3f-0819e6a21a1f |last=Microsoft |title=What's New in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows |date=2017 |website=Microsoft Support |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170731220459/https://support.office.com/en-us/article/What-s-new-in-PowerPoint-2016-for-Windows-e8ef980c-5b12-4fff-ae3f-0819e6a21a1f |url-status=live |archive-date=July 31, 2017 |access-date=August 26, 2017}}</ref> PowerPoint development is still carried out in Silicon Valley {{As of|2017|lc=y}}.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://careers.microsoft.com/jobdetails.aspx?ss=&pg=0&so=&rw=1&jid=305962&jlang=EN&pp=SS |title=Microsoft Careers: Senior Software Engineer (Job #1064262) |website=Microsoft Silicon Valley |date=August 17, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170821205245/https://careers.microsoft.com/jobdetails.aspx?ss=&pg=0&so=&rw=1&jid=305962&jlang=en&pp=ss |url-status=live |archive-date=August 21, 2017 |access-date=August 21, 2017 |quote=Come join the PowerPoint team ... in the heart of the Silicon Valley in Mountain View, CA. The PowerPoint team has the responsibility for the design, implementation, and testing ... .}}</ref>

In 2010, Jeff Raikes, who had most recently been President of the Business Division of Microsoft (including responsibility for Office),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.microsoft.com/2008/01/10/microsoft-announces-retirement-and-transition-plan-for-jeff-raikes-president-of-the-microsoft-business-division/ |title=Microsoft Announces Retirement and Transition Plan for Jeff Raikes, President of the Microsoft Business Division |last=Microsoft Corp. |date=January 10, 2008 |website=Microsoft News Center |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141128004953/http://news.microsoft.com/2008/01/10/microsoft-announces-retirement-and-transition-plan-for-jeff-raikes-president-of-the-microsoft-business-division/ |archive-date=November 28, 2014 |url-status=live |access-date=August 25, 2017 |quote=MBD has grown to include ... the Microsoft Office system ... .}}</ref> observed: "of course, today we know that PowerPoint is oftentimes the number two—or in some cases even the number one—most-used tool" among the applications in Office.<ref name="raikes-history-pt2-2010-hist" />

===Sales and market share===
PowerPoint's initial sales were about 40,000 copies sold in 1987 (nine months), about 85,000 copies in 1988, and about 100,000 copies in 1989, all for Macintosh.<ref name="Sweating-Bullets-2012-salesnums">{{Cite book |last=Gaskins |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Gaskins |title=Sweating Bullets: Notes about Inventing PowerPoint |year=2012 |publisher=Vinland Books |isbn=978-0-9851424-0-7 <!-- hardcover ed --> |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RC_5OCQQJ7YC |access-date=August 12, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170624031005/http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/sweating-bullets/gaskins-sweating-bullets-webpdf-isbn-9780985142414.pdf <!-- webpdf ed --> |url-status=live |archive-date=June 24, 2017}} Rounded unit sales figures are from the revenue tables (p. 403) adjusted to calendar years (p. 170) with the transfer pricing indicated (p. 182).</ref> PowerPoint's market share in its first three years was a tiny part of the total presentation market, which was very heavily dominated by [[MS-DOS]] applications on PCs.<ref name="PC-market-share-2005">{{cite web |url=https://arstechnica.com/features/2005/12/total-share |title=Total share: 30 years of personal computer market share figures |last=Reimer |first=Jeremy |date=December 14, 2005 |website=Ars Technica |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512015006/http://www.360doc.com/content/12/0124/10/28217_181627497.shtml |url-status=live |archive-date=May 12, 2015 |access-date=August 25, 2017 |quote= ... the IBM PC platform ... an 84% share in 1990. The Macintosh stabilized at about 6% market share ... .}}</ref> The market leaders on MS-DOS in 1988–1989<ref>{{cite news |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uzsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT33 <!-- URL is correctly off by 1 --> |last= <!-- table, no author --> |title=Egghead Software Sales: ... Graphics/DOS |newspaper=InfoWorld |issn=0199-6649 |volume=11 |issue=1 |date=January 2, 1989 |page=32 <!-- URL is correctly off by one --> |access-date=September 9, 2017 |quote= Graphics/DOS ... 1 Harvard Graphics (Software Publishing), 2 Freelance + (Lotus) ... .}} [https://archive.org/stream/Infoworld-1989-01-02#page/n31/ Alt URL]</ref> were [[Harvard Graphics]] (introduced by [[Software Publishing Corporation|Software Publishing]] in 1986<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=33QfOHT69aMC&pg=PA10 |last=Watt |first=Peggy |title=Software Publishing adds graphic package to Harvard line |newspaper=Computerworld |publisher=IDG Communications |issn=0010-4841 |volume=XX |issue=4 |date=January 27, 1986 |page=10 |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6tM1bxeaU?url=https://filetea.me/n3wKciph2t9QxChZDY7ePKACg |url-status=live |archive-date=September 9, 2017 |access-date=September 9, 2017 |quote=... graphics presentation program, Harvard Presentation Graphics, introduced last week. ... will be available in March ... . |df=mdy-all }}</ref>) in first place, and [[IBM Lotus Freelance Graphics|Lotus Freelance Plus]] (also introduced in 1986<ref>{{cite news |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mTwEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA3 |last=Schemenaur |first=PJ |title=Lotus to Unveil Revision of Freelance |newspaper=InfoWorld |issn=0199-6649 |volume=8 |issue=43 |date=October 27, 1986 |page=3 <!-- URL is correctly off by 2 --> |access-date=September 9, 2017 |quote= ... Freelance Plus, the first new release of Freelance since Lotus acquired the graphics package from Graphics Communications Inc. in June.}} [https://archive.org/stream/Infoworld-1986-10-27#page/n1 Alt URL]</ref>) as a strong second.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UenCawr7OowC&pg=PA95 |last1=Howard |first1=Bill |last2=Kunkel |first2=Gerard |title=More Than Meets the Eye: Designing Great Graphics |newspaper=PC Magazine |publisher=Ziff Davis |issn=0888-8507 |volume=7 |issue=16 |date=September 27, 1988 |page=95 |access-date=September 8, 2017 |quote=''Harvard Graphics'' gained the top spot this year, and now outsells ''Freelance Plus'' by a three-to-two margin.}} [https://archive.org/stream/PC-Mag-1988-09-27#page/n95/ Alt URL]</ref> They were competing with more than a dozen other MS-DOS presentation products,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UenCawr7OowC&pg=PA109 |last=<!-- 19 contributing authors --> |title=Designing Great Graphics: Desktop Solutions |newspaper=PC Magazine |publisher=Ziff Davis |issn=0888-8507 |volume=7 |issue=16 |date=September 27, 1988 |pages=109–179 |access-date=September 8, 2017 |quote= 18 ... software packages reviewed ... .}} [https://archive.org/stream/PC-Mag-1988-09-27#page/n109/ Alt URL]</ref> and Microsoft did not develop a PowerPoint version for MS-DOS.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Parker |first=Rachel |date=August 3, 1987 |title=Microsoft Acquires Forethought, Publisher of PowerPoint Package |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1zsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA8 |department=News |newspaper=InfoWorld |issn=0199-6649 |volume=9 |issue=31 |page=8 |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6ZVlHDCYN?url=https://filetea.me/t1sZ0YKQbIxQxKUb7kT6fp3Xw |url-status=live |archive-date=June 23, 2015 |access-date=August 25, 2017 |quote=[Microsoft president Jon] Shirley ... said that Microsoft has no firm plans currently to develop an MS-DOS version of PowerPoint.}}</ref> After three years, PowerPoint sales were disappointing. Jeff Raikes, who had bought PowerPoint for Microsoft, later recalled: "By 1990, it looked like it wasn't a very smart idea [for Microsoft to have acquired PowerPoint], because not very many people were using PowerPoint."<ref name="raikes-history-pt2-2010-hist" />

This began to change when the first version for Windows, PowerPoint 2.0, brought sales up to about 200,000 copies in 1990 and to about 375,000 copies in 1991, with Windows units outselling Macintosh.<ref name="Sweating-Bullets-2012-salesnums" />{{Rp|page=403}} PowerPoint sold about 1&nbsp;million copies in 1992, of which about 80 percent were for Windows and about 20 percent for Macintosh,<ref name="Sweating-Bullets-2012-salesnums" />{{Rp|page=403}} and in 1992 PowerPoint's market share of worldwide presentation graphics software sales was reported as 63 percent.<ref name="Sweating-Bullets-2012-salesnums" />{{Rp|page=404}} By the last six months of 1992, PowerPoint revenue was running at a rate of over $100&nbsp;million annually (${{Formatprice|{{Inflation|US|100000000|1987|r=1}}}} in present-day terms{{Inflation-fn|US}}).<ref name="Sweating-Bullets-2012-salesnums" />{{Rp|page=405}}<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gates |first=Bill |author-link=Bill Gates |date=August 16, 1993 |title=Free market economics—not intervention—drives innovation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qjsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA44 |newspaper=InfoWorld |issn=0199-6649 |volume=15 |issue=33 |department=Letters to the Editor |page=44 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240527085959/https://www.webcitation.org/6YmBkekB0?url=https://filetea.me/t1sRyyL0aAKRemuy8x8TwCfww |url-status=live |archive-date=May 27, 2024 |access-date=August 26, 2017 |quote=Data from the Software Publishers Association and other sources show that in 1992, while overall sales of application products grew only 12 percent, sales of Windows-based applications grew by nearly 100 percent. At least a dozen companies besides Microsoft have sold more than 1&nbsp;million units of Windows applications.}}</ref>

Sales of PowerPoint 3.0 doubled to about 2&nbsp;million copies in 1993, of which about 90 percent were for Windows and about 10 percent for Macintosh,<ref name="Sweating-Bullets-2012-salesnums" />{{Rp|page=403}} and in 1993 PowerPoint's market share of worldwide presentation graphics software sales was reported as 78 percent.<ref name="Sweating-Bullets-2012-salesnums" />{{Rp|page=404}} In both years, about half of total revenue came from sales outside the U.S.<ref name="Sweating-Bullets-2012-salesnums" />{{Rp|page=404}}

By 1997 PowerPoint sales had doubled again, to more than 4&nbsp;million copies annually, representing 85 percent of the world market.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ziff Davis Market Intelligence |date=September 1998 |title=The 800-Pound Gorilla of the Presentation Market |journal=Mobile Computing and Communications |page=95 |volume=9 |issue=9 |issn=1047-1952 |quote=... in 1997, without question the market leader was Microsoft Corp.'s PowerPoint, which sold more than 4 million copies and controls 85 percent of the market. |url=https://filetea.me/t1sEVBHlotISPCAVUKpeg2F5A |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6bxj2eryp?url=https://filetea.me/t1sEVBHlotISPCAVUKpeg2F5A |archive-date=October 1, 2015 |df=mdy-all }} {{webarchive|format=addlarchives|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826204750/https://filetea.me/n3wiYbSzCLuStyw3hl7fDW0dA |date=August 26, 2017}}</ref> Also in 1997, an internal publication from the PowerPoint group said that by then over 20&nbsp;million copies of PowerPoint were in use, and that total revenues from PowerPoint over its first ten years (1987 to 1996) had already exceeded $1&nbsp;billion.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/belleville-peterson-somogyi-gbu-10-year-reunion-1997-apr.pdf |title=PowerPoint: The First Ten Years |last1=Belleville |first1=Catherine |last2=Peterson |first2=Lucy |last3=Somogyi |first3=Aniko |date=April 1997 |website=PowerPoint History Documents |pages=2, 8 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107153706/http://www.robertgaskins.com/powerpoint-history/documents/belleville-peterson-somogyi-gbu-10-year-reunion-1997-apr.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=January 7, 2016 |access-date=August 25, 2017}}</ref>

Since the late 1990s, PowerPoint's market share of total world presentation software has been estimated at 95 percent by both industry and academic sources.<ref name="Thielsch-Perabo-2012-history">{{Cite journal |last1=Thielsch |first1=Meinald T. |last2=Perabo |first2=Isabel |date=May 2012 |title=Use and Evaluation of Presentation Software |url=http://www.thielsch.org/download/paper/Thielsch_Perabo_2012.pdf |journal=Technical Communication |volume=59 |issue=2 |pages=112–123 |issn=0049-3155 |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6bk3O2vuL?url=http://www.thielsch.org/download/paper/Thielsch_Perabo_2012.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=September 22, 2015 |access-date=August 24, 2017 |quote=For many years, Microsoft has led the market with its program PowerPoint. Zongker and Salesin (2003) estimated a market share of 95% in 2003, and a Forrester study (Montalbano, 2009) widely confirmed this number, stating that only 8% of enterprise customers use alternative products. ... we confirm the prior estimates ... . }} Embedded citations: (1) {{Cite conference |url=http://grail.cs.washington.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/zongker-2003-oca.pdf |title=On Creating Animated Presentations |last1=Zongker |first1=Douglas E. |last2=Salesin |first2=David H. |year=2003 |conference=Eurographics/SIGGRAPH Symposium on Computer Animation, San Diego, CA, July 26–27, 2003 |conference-url=http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=846276 |book-title=SCA '03 Symposium on Computer Animation 2003 |publisher=Eurographics Association |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6bk2fHC1g?url=http://grail.cs.washington.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/zongker-2003-oca.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=September 22, 2015 |location=Aire-la-Ville, Switzerland |pages=298–308 |isbn=978-1-58113-659-3 |access-date=August 24, 2017 }} (2) {{Cite news |last=Montalbano |first=Elizabeth |date=June 4, 2009 |title=Forrester: Microsoft Office in No Danger From Competitors |url=http://www.pcworld.com/article/166123 |newspaper=PC World |issn=0737-8939 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160816143250/http://www.pcworld.com/article/166123/article.html |url-status=live |archive-date=August 16, 2016 |access-date=August 24, 2017 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>